A crisis took place in late March 1987 between Turkey and Greece as part of the Aegean dispute. Turkey learned that Greece was starting to drill for oil in the Aegean Sea in the vicinity of Thasos, a Greek territory. In response, the Turkish survey ship Piri Reis (and later the RV MTA Sismik 1) was sent to the area with an escort of Turkish warships. [1] [2]
Oil was discovered off Thasos, in 1973. Greece claimed ownership of mineral rights in the continental shelf extending from beneath all its islands in the Aegean. Turkey proposed that the continental shelf be divided through negotiations. [3]
In March 1987, a decision of the Greek government to nationalize the consortium of companies that was drilling oil off Thasos, and planned exploratory oil drilling 17 kilometres (11 mi) east of the island of Thasos, such as the impression by Turkey that Greece was planning new researches for oil, provoked tension between the two countries.
The crisis escalated, armed forces of both countries were on alert, and each side said they would use force if obstructed by the other. [2] The incident nearly started a war between Greece and Turkey. [4]
Greek prime minister Andreas Papandreou gave the orders to sink the ship if it was found in Greek waters. Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Özal said that "If Greece interferes with our vessel in any way, and this is what Papandreou is saying, we will act in the same way against him", "As a result, it could be cause for war," but he also added that "We are waiting for the first move from them." [2] The Greek foreign minister Karolos Papoulias was sent to Bulgaria (then a member of the Warsaw Pact) for discussions. The Greek government gave orders for the suspension of operation of the base of NATO in Nea Makri, while the Greek forces and Navy were alarmed.
Britain's Lord Carrington, the secretary general of NATO, urged Greece and Turkey to avoid the use of force and offered to act as a mediator. [2]
As one of the oldest Euro-Atlantic member states in the region of Southeast Europe, Greece enjoys a prominent geopolitical role as a middle power, due to its political and geographical proximity to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas and Australia. Its main allies are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Israel, Cyprus and the rest of the European Union, NATO and UN.
Thasos or Thassos is a Greek island in the North Aegean Sea. It is the northernmost major Greek island, and 12th largest by area.
Konstantinos G. Karamanlis, commonly anglicised to Constantine Karamanlis or just Caramanlis, was a four-time prime minister and two-term president of the Third Hellenic Republic, and a towering figure of Greek politics, whose political career spanned much of the latter half of the 20th century.
Andreas Georgiou Papandreou was a Greek economist, politician and a dominant figure in Greek politics, known for founding the political party PASOK, which he led from 1974 to 1996. He served three terms as the 3rd and 8th prime minister of Greece.
Georgios Papandreou was a Greek politician, the founder of the Papandreou political dynasty. He served three terms as prime minister of Greece. He was also deputy prime minister from 1950 to 1952, in the governments of Nikolaos Plastiras and Sofoklis Venizelos. He served numerous times as a cabinet minister, starting in 1923, in a political career that spanned more than five decades.
The Panhellenic Socialist Movement, known mostly by its acronym PASOK, is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012, it was one of the two major parties in the country, along with New Democracy, its main political rival.
Relations between Greece and Turkey began in the 1830s following Greece's formation after its declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire. Modern relations began when Turkey declared its formation in 1923 following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.
The Aegean dispute is a set of interrelated controversies between Greece and Turkey over sovereignty and related rights in the region of the Aegean Sea. This set of conflicts has strongly affected Greek-Turkish relations since the 1970s, and has twice led to crises coming close to the outbreak of military hostilities, in 1987 and in early 1996. The issues in the Aegean fall into several categories:
The Hellenic Aviation was first established in 1911 with help from French experts. The air force of Greece or the Hellenic Air Force participated in the Balkan Wars, World War I, the Asia Minor War, World War II, the Greek Civil War, the Korean War and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
The Aegean Army or Fourth Army is one of the four main formations of the Turkish Army. It covers the entire west coast of the Anatolia peninsula and has its headquarters in İzmir. It was organised in the 1970s in response to political tensions with Greece - the ongoing Aegean dispute.
The Osprey 55-class gunboat is a Danish-designed class of naval ship currently in service in the Hellenic Navy and Royal Moroccan Navy. Two ships were ordered by Greece in March 1988 and built by Hellenic Shipyards. The first one was laid down on 8 May 1989 and launched on 19 December 1989. The second ship was laid down on 9 November 1989 and launched on 16 May 1990. Armament is of modular design and therefore can be changed. 76-millimetre (3 in) guns replaced the Bofors 40 mm (1.6 in) guns in 1995, after being taken from decommissioned Gearing-class destroyers. Options on more of the class were shelved in favour of the slightly larger HSY-55 class.
This is a timeline of modern Greek history.
Greece–Israel relations are the bilateral relationship between the Hellenic Republic and the State of Israel. Relations between the two countries were strained during the late 20th century, but since 2008 they have been among the strongest in the Eastern Mediterranean. Israel and Greece consider each other as strong collaborators in the aspects of military, intelligence, economy and culture. Both countries are part of the Energy Triangle, which referred to the extraction of oil and gas from both Israel and Cyprus by 2015, which will be delivered to mainland Europe with a pipeline through Greece. The deterioration of Israel's relations with Turkey following the Gaza flotilla raid has heavily contributed to the strengthening of Greek-Israeli relations.
Greece and Italy enjoy special and very strong bilateral diplomatic relations. Modern diplomatic relations between the two countries were established right after Italy's unification, and are today regarded as cordial. The two states cooperate in fields of energy, security, culture and tourism, and are major trading partners, both in exports and imports. Greeks and Italians often exchange the phrase "una faccia, una razza", meaning "one face, one race".
Imia is a pair of small uninhabited islets in the Aegean Sea, situated between the Greek island chain of the Dodecanese and the southwestern mainland coast of Turkey. They are known in Turkey as Kardak.
The Republic of Cyprus (Cyprus) and Turkey have been engaged in a dispute over the extent of their exclusive economic zones (EEZ), ostensibly sparked by oil and gas exploration in the area. Turkey objects to Cypriot drilling in waters that Cyprus has asserted a claim to under international maritime law. The present maritime zones dispute touches on the perennial Cyprus and Aegean disputes; Turkey is the only member state of the United Nations that does not recognise Cyprus, and is one of the few not signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Cyprus has signed and ratified.
The Turkish Straits crisis was a Cold War-era territorial conflict between the Soviet Union and Turkey. Turkey had remained officially neutral throughout most of the Second World War. After the war ended, Turkey was pressured by the Soviet government to institute joint military control of passage through Turkish Straits, which connected the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. When the Turkish government refused, tensions in the region rose, leading to a Soviet show of force and demands for territorial concessions along the Georgia–Turkey border.
The Evros River incident of 19 December 1986 was a skirmish between Greek and Turkish soldiers along the Evros river, near the town of Feres on the Greco-Turkish border.
The Greece–Turkey border is around 200 kilometres (120 mi) long, and separates Western Thrace in Greece from East Thrace in Turkey.
Events in the year 2020 in Greece.